


I Am Become Death

by Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492



Series: Access Animus...Begin Regression [8]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Abstergo Industries, Angst, Blood and Gore, Descendants of Assassins, Descendants of Templars, Familial Abuse, Family Secrets, Gen, Hinted Sophia Rikkin/Ellen Kaye, The Animus 4.5, dysfunctional family relationships, the Bleeding Effect
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-04 02:26:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10981434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492/pseuds/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492
Summary: There was something hauntingly beautiful about the sounds coming from the piano. A melody dripping in blood and flesh, as she steps down from the stage with a bow. Sophia accepts this fate with a bouqet of bloody roses and pearly teeth.//or//The Aftermath and the Life of Sophia Rikkin, Daughter of Alan Rikkin, and Descendant of Aguilar de Nerha.





	1. Chapter 1

_Step forward. Stage one. Wait for your cue. Wait for the melody._

* * *

There is something hauntingly beautiful about the sounds coming from the piano. It pulls her into a room, the office that she had back in Spain. It destroys the noises of the city outside and awakens the sound that had once consumed her brain. The melody rises, curling through blood and flesh, enticing her to dance.  _Dance with me,_ the voice says, hands uncurling in an offer from a corpse. _Dance upon the syringes and Animus epidurals that were placed in people who have long since died. Curl your arm around a broken body, until shards of glass embed themselves into you. Until no more tears and cries of pain come from you like your patients who laid in white, pristine cells until they died._

_I know you miss this, this melody, it's a journey you know._

The voice doesn't stop until the piano stops. Leaving her alone, surrounded with silence and artifacts of weapons who haven't touched flesh in centuries. Such an ironic thing, to be alone, with objects that you took from dead bodies. Such an ironic thing, for your biggest mistake to haunt you.

* * *

 

_Take a breath. Don't forget your lines. Reset!_

* * *

She does not believe in ghost as a woman of science. However, that is what she calls the dead boy who returns to her office everytime she does. A never ending loop, one that she cannot remember leaving. Nor can she remember entering, but at least she isn't alone. Not even when her ghost keeps mocking her,  _keeps playing for her,_ does she wish to be alone.

The melody grows louder against the walls.It leaves her standing there, staring, at the back of the young man. The ill-fit suit is black and stark, white dress shirt tightly cuffed, even so it stands stark as well against dead skin. She only sees his back as he faced away from her view, his black hair ill kept, and bleeding from the back of his neck is the symolism of his death. A symbolism of his rebirth. The Animus epidural always leaves a scar. Not that she can continue to stare, because he is gone as soon as he comes. The form that had been hunched over the grand piano vanishes, her ghost gone. Until he returns to her, until he is in front of her, dull blue eyes gazing at her like that of a rook. The jeweled crimson cross hangs from his neck like a noose made from a chain of gold.  _You are going to kill him,_ he says,  _just like you killed me, but I doubt you'll pull it off this time._ The words burn against her arm, branding themselves into her brain. Then just like that, with a snap of a finger, he appears across from her. Callum Lynch stands alongside Assassins and Templars that have been dead for hundreds of years. His eyes no longer have hints of tears in them. They simply drop, drop to the hidden blade he bares, before rising once more. She was going to kill him, unless he killed her first.

 _Her ghost laughs at that, an old top hat sitting upon his head,_ he says like a narrator to a plays audience. He sits upon the piano once more, flarring with dramatics as he ignores the Assassin that now walks towards her with his hidden blade raised, and her ghost begins to sing like a corpse should not be able to do.

* * *

  _Here begins the tell of Maxwell Roth! Or should I say Sophia Rikkin?_  

* * *

This time the melody is dull, bland, screwing into her ears like nails. She can't remember how last time ended. Only the things in this moment seem to matter, seem to embed themselves into her brain. The clean floor is covered in ripped up flesh and blood. Matted clumps of hair stick out against the thick coagulated liquid. It should make her sick, it should make her want to claw her eyes out, but she can't.

Her ghost sits upon a table of weapons, a cane in his hand, whose bird skulls once golden paint has long since chipped away. He smiles, teeth missing and ripped away, from one to many hits by the guards.  _Why do you seek me out Sophie? Why do you want to hurt yourself?_ His voice is laced, practiclly dripping in sarcasm, but there is something about that tone. It's the melody from the piano. It  _cares,_ but the smile says something else. The dead eyes say something else. Pulling her into a trance as something digs into her skin and into her flesh. It pulls up, a clean cord, hooked by a piece of metal into her neck. An  _epidural, he tells her, his dry cracked lips closing shut as the long needle inserts itself into her spinal cord._

* * *

The piano plays again, only this time, her ghost is joined by her fathers corpse. He lays within the thick coagulated blood, and matted hair, and cracked bones, and broken teeth. He floats within it as if he was a piece of drift wood.  _You are going to lead them right to it. To the Apple._ __Sophia doesn't understand until blood begins to seep from her pours. It drips down into the mess slugging around on the floor like water during a flood. The blood comes out, more and more, until the Assassin appears. Aguilar. He ignores her, joins her ghost by the piano, four fingers running through her ghost messy black hair. _Callum wasn't the only descendant from Aguilar's bloodline._ Her ghost says, his voice broken and clashed, bleeding into a female voice that hasn't been heard in centuries. He turns to her, blue eyes still dull and dead, and his face morphs into those who made him who he once was.  _Maria. Elise. Cecily. Jacob. Evie. Lydia._ It leaves her eyes burning, muscles aching, until she is almost tempted to fall into her nightmare.

Aguilar looks at her, walks towards her like a father does knowing he'll have to put down the family pet. All Sophia can do is beg into this nothingness.  _This isn't right,_ she wants to say,  _this can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be real._

* * *

Her throat is slit, a bouqet of bloody roses and teeth is handed to her by a faceless Abstergo guard.

_Bow. Left. Bow. Right. Cross arms. Bow towards the crowd. Exit Stage Left._

* * *

In reality there is nothing. No more melody. No more piano. No more blood and gore floating on the floor. No more Aguilar. No more bleeding effect. 

In reality the lights are blinding and Ellen Kaye looks down on her with the same frown the old woman had given her father. "Look at me Sophia. I promised you that your time would come my child, and it has come and gone. The same way that it did with your half-brother Jason, and your father Alan. I'm not sure if you even remember them anymore." The elder leaned forward and ripped the epidural out from the back of her neck. Smearing the chair with blood. "It seems that the Subject 17 glitch effected your time in the Animus. Giving you a nightmare more than the past. Either way we can fix that." 

Sophia blinks, _once, twice, three times_ , but before she can rip her dried lips from each other. Before she can ask what was happening to her pain spread from the back of her neck once more.

* * *

_The melody returns. She is on stage once again._

* * *

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Heir To A Throne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From her mother's death to the day were she placed Subject 19 into the Animus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hinted Sophia/Ellen.
> 
> I was surprised by how many people actually ship them. I'm not gonna lie though, whenever Ellen was around Sophia or talking about Sophia it was just...creepy? Like Ellen knows things that Alan doesn't creepy or Ellen tries to get to him using Sophia creepy.
> 
> Then again Ellen Kaye is right up there with Juno with how sinister she is in a way that you would overlook her and then she would have men kill you.
> 
> Anyways, enough of my ramblings, onto the story.

___"No child deserves to watch their parent die, Callum."_

* * *

_Her father's voice is a distant echo as she goes through their summer home. Sophia doesn't understand why they need more than one(let alone based on the seasons), but she supposes that it is an adult thing. Something that you only truly understand when you are older, like where babies come from and why people are being shipped in boxes._

 

_Going up the marble steps, the little girl pushes open the glass door that leads into the hall. If she was lucky, mommy wouldn't hear it, and then her trip to the garden would go unnoticed._

 

_"Mommy?"_

 

_Mommy said that she would be in the living area in Sophia needed her, but she wasn't. She wasn't sitting on the sofa reading a book or sitting at the desk to do work. It was unlike her, because mommy never lies and saying things that are not true is a bad thing. Like stealing and hitting._

 

_Feeling confusion flood through her at the absence of her mother, Sophia decided to go into the kitchen to see if the house keeper was in there. Her name was Rosaline, a native of Spain who made some of the best cookies ever! Even if Sophia knew that sweets were off limits at certain times Rosaline would always sneak her one. Knocking on the door, Sophia tried listening in but there was nothing but silence. Not an ounce of sound from her friend._

 

_Biting her lip, Sophia felt even more worried, because now mommy was gone and Rosaline was gone too. They wouldn't leave without her, would they? Father was still at work, wasn't he?_

 

_Taking off down the hall and up the set of wooden stairs, she tried her best not to trip on the yellow endings of her white sundress. But right when she was about to continue so she could check father's office there was a sound coming from the second floor. Maybe that was where mommy and Rosaline went. Turning back around, the little girl made her way down the hall before reaching mommy and father's room. Reaching for the golden doorknob Sophia pulled and pushed as she always had to do with the thick, wooden doors._

 

_Laying on the bed was mommy still dressed in her work clothing and a hooded figure standing above her._

 

_"Mommy?"_

 

_The head snapped towards her spiking her with fear at the sudden movement._

_Then the hooded figure moved towards the window, a silver triangle around it's neck before-_

* * *

_"Tell me. How is your beautiful daughter?"_

* * *

 

_"Jason! What have I told you about taking my note cards!"_

_"It's called studying dear sister! I have to catch up with you somehow!"_

_"Will the two of you shut up! Ellen Kaye is stopping by and I need you two to act like civilized human beings!"_

 

_Alan Rikkin could not deal with his two children. They were always at the others throat; even if Sophia was supposed to be the older one that was more mature. Sophia was still holding a grudge against him for remarrying after her mother. Elizabeth Rikkin was a decent woman from England who had charmed him with her witt and cunning charm. Something that she passed down to Jason, which doesn't help with the on going fued._

 

_Sophia fixed her brother's crimson tie before snatching her note cards from him. She was at least over a decade older than him, not that she kept count, but the boy utterly annoyed her. High school was hard enough. Having an eight year old who is far too witty and cunning for his own good and age certainly didn't help. "Don't screw this up for me." She begged, but Jason just responded with a knowing smirk._

_"Why do you want to impress her so much? The lady is probably going to be how much older than you by the time that your legal?"_

_Sophia snapped, smacking him sharply on the arm, but he still had that annoying brow arched at her behavior and that annoying smirk on his face._

 

_"You're eight! Bloody act like it for once, please?"_

 

_She doesn't wait for an answer, she leaves with a sure blush on her face, and god damn him! Sophia had first met the woman two years ago when she had dropped by. She was older than father, very professional, and Sophia managed to embarras herself. Tripping over her own two feet no less, and that six year old somehow remembered it. How she had remained blushing for the rest of the day. Even more so when having to actually speak with her._

 

_The woman was intimidating and Sophia happened to have a thing for the ones that she should stay away from._

 

_Fixing her skirt, Sophia went to open the door for Father before he could even finish putting on his cuff._

 

_"You must be Rikkin's beautiful daughter. You haven't changed a day."_

* * *

_"What do you want from me?"_

_"Your past, Cal. Your past."_

* * *

_Doctor Warren Vidic was a failure._

_The Helix Project was a failure._

_Animus after Animus they tried, but it was never perfect enough for her liking and she was the one to create them. Not the original of course, that had been her mother's job, but ever since she was old enough Sophia did it. Studying neurological functions in the human brain to the very artifacts that were taken from Assassin and Templar tombs._

_It was her life's work. An extension to her mother's life. To the world of peace that both of her parents wished to achieve._

 

_The Abstergo Foundation had been her first time creating a facility and working enviroment. She hired the best technicians, caretakers, and researchers that Abstergo had to offer. She found the best guards, men and women both, who could deal with any type of problem. From a riot to an escape if any were to occur._

_Then there were the test subjects, twenty to be exact, their ancestors ranging from Assassins to Templars. However, their identification codes had to match up with the endings to Doctor Vidic's. Making Subject 19 her very first test subject._

 

_"Is the Animus ready?"_

 

_"Yes. We are prepared to begin the Regression." A technician informed as two hidden blades were placed upon Subject 19._

 

_Sophia watched in interest as they began searching for DNA chains. A black floating form, like ink in water, began to go around the subject at a fast speed. Sending sounds and voices with it. A complete new form of an Animus regression occuring before her very eyes._

_Then-then they found what they had been looking for._

_The Arm of the Animus lifted up before dropping down; the hollowgraphic lights creating everything else from the memory around them in the dome._

 

 

_And for the first time in centuries, Sophia saw the face of the Assassin they had been looking for._

_And for the first time in centuries, Sophia spoke to the deceased woman, even if she could not hear her voice._

 

 

_"Hello Maria."_

 

 

 

 


End file.
